One may note that there are grey areas in above groupings. For example, some of the recent drop-outs may join the program in future, and therefore, belong to the category of occasional participants. Similarly, some of the recent participants may drop-out in future and join the group of either complete drop-outs or occasional participants. In spite of this problem, it enables a clear distinction between three important groups: regular participants, complete drop-outs and occasional participants, who together constitute 78 percent of the sample households in program villages. Since the “complete drop-outs” may rejoin the MFI net, one may aggregate “complete drop-outs”, “recent drop-outs” and “occasional participants”. We do this and identify the set as occasional participants. In most of the analyses to be presented in the subsequent chapters, we make use of three sample groups: regular participants, occasional participants and non-participants.

Finally, a pragmatic side of data management in longitudinal surveys needs to be noted. Households, which are the sampling units, are not stable either. With demographic transition, they split into two or more units. Moreover, some of the households covered during the first round of survey may not be available in the locality during subsequent rounds [3] . Anticipating these problems, the sample size was purposively chosen to be larger than that required by the terms of reference. Of the 3026 households, 112 (3.7 percent) split into two or more units (Table 2.3), while records for all three rounds were available for 2903 of the original units (including those which split, but information on all split units were available). In case of the split units, where applicable, we have aggregated the information on the split units to arrive at information on the original unit. Thus, most exercises in this report are based on the 2903 households. Village-specific information on the numbers of included households are presented in Table A.2.4 in the annexure at the end of this chapter.

Distribution of Survey Households in terms of Stability of the Units and Availability During the Survey Rounds
 

Household stability	Recorded in all rounds	Missing in one or more rounds	Row total
Split into 2 or more units	76	36	112
Remained a single unit	2827	87	2914
Total number of households	2903	123	3026

Annexure to Chapter 2

Region	Regular participants	Complete drop-out	Recent drop-outs	New participants	Non-participants	Occasional participants	Number of households
Panchagarh	92	3	11	3	56	28	193
Kurigram	90	8	13	5	52	34	202
Sahajadpur	61	4	25		57	50	197
Meherpur	60	11	27	1	48	51	198
Madaripur	101	3	9	8	53	27	201
Agailjhara	87	9	8	3	56	32	195
Tangail	104	2	9	4	46	30	195
Netrokona	75	2	15	4	52	45	193
Satkhira	89	12	12	5	46	29	193
Munshiganj	60	3	21	3	56	49	192
Chittagong	58	8	21	6	81	31	205
Feni	65	3	16	5	69	37	195
Bogra	119	8	20	4	71	44	266
Number of households	1061	76	207	51	743	487	2625
Percentages	40.42	2.90	7.89	1.94	28.30	18.55	100

Region	Regular participants	New participants	Non-participants	Occasional participants	Number of households
Sahajadpur			47	4	51
Tangail	2	2	20	25	49
Netrokona		2	47	1	50
Satkhira		11	31	9	51
Munshiganj		2	46		48
Chittagong	3		22	4	29
Number of hhs	5	17	213	43	278
Percentages	1.80	6.12	76.62	15.47	100.00

Reasons for Missing	Percent
Joined son’s family after death of husband	1.1
Temporarily migrated out to work in urban area	11.0
Family migrated to the work place of household head*	7.7
Absence of members; left due to family strife	8.8
Reunion of households	4.4
Left for being unable to repay debt*	12.1
Shifted to other village in fear of river erosion	11.0
Due to lack of homestead land, migrated to other villages	2.2
Migrated to other countries*	8.8
Returned to own village after residing in wife’s village	11.0
Moved to government housing project area	4.4
Not known*	17.6

Table 2.A.4  
Distribution of sample Households in terms of Availability of Data in 3 Rounds and Household Splits

Region	Village	Undivided, available in all rounds	Undivided, dropped in 2nd round	Undivided; dropped in third round	Divided; available in all rounds	Undivided; dropped in 2nd and covered in 3rd round	Divided; missing in one of the later rounds	Sample size in 1st round
Panchagar (Anuvab)	Baguladangi 30 1 1       2 34 Balabhir 33         1       34 Piramood 31   1 2       34 Daksa para 30     1     3 34 Sarkar par 31    1 2   1 35 Hasanpur 30 1   2      33
	185 2 3 8 6 204
Kurigram (Solidarity)	Pathak Para 32     3     35 Sakoa 31 1         34 Asharu 34   2       34 Joykumar 32     2     34 Paramanik Tari 34           34 Madajal Fara 34           34
	197 1 2 5     205
Shahazadpur	Ratankandi 30     2     32 Jugnidaha 29     1    4 34 Prannathpur 35         1 36 Daya Islampur 31     2   1 34
(PPD)	Choto Shelachapri 31   1  2     34 Nukali 33     1       34 Nandalalpur 23   1 2      26 Boro Shelachapri 25      1     26
Meherpur (PRP)	Kamdevpur 32   1 2    1   Dariapur 33                Khandakar Para 34               Terogharia 29   4      1   Radhakanta pur 31   1 2       Kuhksa 34       1           193    6 5    2 206
	237 2 11 6 256
Madaripur (GUP)	Mohhah Kandi 33     1